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Photo by Maxwell MacKenzie.
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Photo by Maxwell MacKenzie.
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Photo by Maxwell MacKenzie.
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Photo by Maxwell MacKenzie.
Randall J. Kipp Architecture
Building a house at the beach isn’t necessarily the same as building a waterfront house.
When architect Randall Kipp was asked to design a Virginia Beach home, it was for a lot located off Atlantic Avenue and near, but not on, the water. The neighborhood, formerly made up of little cottages, is one where day visitors often try to park, so Kipp set out to design a house with a visually sturdy and slightly imposing edifice that would deter visitors from parking on the property to get to the beach.
With Virginia Beach’s restrictions about the width of side yards between houses—one had to be 5 yards wide, the other 13 yards—the decision was immediately made to stack the house vertically. His clients wanted a modern house with a minimalist aesthetic, but the constraints of the environment’s salty marine life limited what materials could be used. That, and the overhead din from military jets had to be addressed.
For the facade, Kipp chose white polished concrete block with no ornamentation, essentially creating a three-story cube that provides sound insulation from jet traffic. Inside, the floors are protected with tung oil, an organic solution. The fireplace surround is polished concrete like the exterior. To complement the color and texture of the concrete, he used solid black walnut cabinetry with the wood grain matched and oiled to a matte finish. The front door is oiled teak, while a tall teak privacy fence adds warmth and color to the polished concrete block outside.
Steel staircases with solid wood treads lead to the second and third floors and are fronted by windows overlooking the street. “Because of the number of visitors in the neighborhood, it was necessary to provide some amount of opacity from the street to provide privacy for the homeowners,” Kipp explains. A three-car garage located at the back of the property is connected to the house with a verdant courtyard shaded by a brushed aluminum pergola that opens off the second-floor master suite. “The lot was deep and narrow, and the neighborhood is dense, so it feels almost urban in comparison to the beach,” Kipp says. “The context was everything and that’s what made it so much fun and a challenge.”
Randall Kipp: 804-438-6287
81 King Carter Drive, Irvington, Virginia 22480
